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Exam nerves

Half term is almost over and we are now into the inevitable final panic before back to school - in our case a mix of running round town trying to find an acceptable pair of school shoes for Abi (not easy as she's a 3.5H of which there are 2 pairs to choose from in the whole of Newbury), and getting some revision in for mock 11+ exams which start on Tuesday. She doesn't officially sit her 11+ until next year, but they have started to get them up to the concept and technique of exams already and so I'm currently sitting with her in the kitchen while she completes the mock science paper I've just written. Having not seen a real paper I have no idea whether the style is remotely realistic, but at least I'm testing the content! It probably comes as no surprise that it takes a lot of procrastination before she actually gets down to any revision, but hopefully the mocks will help to cement the idea of it's only her in the exam room and so if nothing else some revision will take away the chance of sitting there for ages wondering why everyone else is still writing when she's finished! This said she nailed science and Latin today so maybe some of it is going in.

Today is one of mixed feelings. This morning I woke up to beautiful weather and so set off on a long walk with the dogs. We did 5 miles and came home full of the joys of early summer, only to hear the news of yet another terror attack in London - 7 dead and 48 injured by 3 men who obviously think this is acceptable behaviour. I curled up with the kids in the sunshine and we talked about why this is happening - and I can't give them an answer. How do you come up with a rational explanation for something that is so abhorrent to us? I do understand that it takes two to tango and these people believe their behaviour is justified, but my moral framework says it's never OK to indiscriminately kill people. Glenn and I did both reflect that in the 1970s when we were growing up it was the IRA blowing people up in the UK, and there was the very real threat of Russia on a global scale. I guess some things never change.

The other constant in life at the moment is the kid's obsession with vloggers and vlogging. Not only do they seem to follow a whole range of everyday people who record and upload their every movement onto YouTube, but they do it themselves (not the uploading bit!). Every time I go into my photo stream there's a new set of videos recorded by one or both of them. As we drove into town this morning Abi was recording herself, chatting about what she was doing, where we were going etc. The one thing it does teach them is good descriptive skills and the art of filling silence. I'm not sure I'd want to be a 'traditional' TV persona nowadays - there's a bunch of DIY kids hot on your heels that this generation is far more interested in following. It seems the normal is actually quite addictive - I suppose this is reality TV reimagined once again. I can't help but giggle a bit when I watch their attempts - even if I'm wincing at the constant use of Americanisms...

Back to school tomorrow and I'm glad to say I'm not sitting here dreading the back to work after a week off. It's been nice to dip in and out of half term and reinforces the decision I've made that switching to a 4 day week to give us and me some time is going to be a good one. I was due to be in London tomorrow but with yesterday's events being so close to the office it will still be under investigation so I'm staying away - nothing was essential and I had to be in Reading anyway later in the day so doesn't make sense to run the risk of disruption. The girls are much happier I'm not going in - trouble is you can't live your life being afraid of what might happen. So things to look forward to - it's a very short term - just 5 weeks - and then it's time for France again - woo hoo!!

"Come on, we're ready for our walk"! 

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